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T-Mobile US CFO Braxton Carter’s comments at an investment conference yesterday (August 13) provide an insight into how the wireless carrier views the multiple companies that are currently encircling it.

Ergen was once described as “The Most Hated Man in Hollywood“, in an issue of The Hollywood Reporter that depicted him on its cover as Satan. (Basically, Dish’s ad-skipping technology upset TV networks and film studios, who already don’t like Ergen because he is such a brutal negotiator over content deals.)

Make of that what you will but it seems (to me) like T-Mobile is signaling its open to doing a deal with Dish. The company has not responded to a request for comment.

Is the feeling mutual? Ergen has long wanted to create another national wireless network (Dish even tried to buy Sprint before it was acquired by SoftBank) so he could bundle in broadband access with video packages. Now people think that easiest way to achieve that would be to buy T-Mobile US. Regulators certainly wouldn’t object.

But it wouldn’t be straightforward. As the Wall Street Journal’s Miriam Gottfried points out (paywall), such a deal would leave the combined company with a heap of debt and possibly a lower credit rating (meaning even higher borrowing costs).

Ergen last week hinted at interest in T-Mobile, but he also has heaped praise on Sprint and its new CEO. Rather than owning, there’s always the option of a strategic partnership.